Cultural Outreach Assistance

NCR's Access and Outreach staff are a great resource for neighborhood organizations. They are available to help connect neighborhoods with under-represented communities.

Access and Outreach staff work to ensure that all residents have the right to know and influence the decisions that impact their lives. The Access and Outreach team's primary role is building community and organizational capacity by establishing trusted relationships through engagement, awareness and education, collaboration and creating space for inclusion. The Access and Outreach team specializes in connecting cultural and historically under represented communities to the City and neighborhood organizations. Access and Outreach staff work directly with the Latino, African American, South East Asian, East African, American Indian, LGBTQ, Seniors, renters and people with disabilities communities.

The Access and Outreach staff can assist neighborhood organizations with the following:

Building and supporting relationships with underrepresented populations;

Developing community dialogues between neighborhood organizations, community organizations and cultural and underrepresented communities and their leadership;

Identifying barriers to participation for underrepresented communities and creating a welcoming environment;

Providing education and cultural context support for neighborhood organizations;

Assisting cultural communities and organizations along with other underrepresented populations understand and navigate neighborhood processes;

Recommending strategies for reaching and engaging cultural and underrepresented communities that meet your neighborhood needs; and

Access and Outreach staff also have extensive experience working with translators and interpreters and can provide guidance and advice to neighborhoods on selecting the appropriate methods for communicating to non-English speaking communities.

We encourage all neighborhood organizations to anticipate their translation needs well in advance, and you can do this in several ways:

Include translation needs in your 2016 annual budget;

Plan well in advance to support inclusion of non-English speaking residents;

Provide ample time before a meeting or event to request assistance from A&O staff; and

Meet with A&O staff to discuss possible barriers to inclusion or ways to create a more welcoming environment for non-English speaking residents.

QUICK LINKS

Accessibility: For reasonable accommodations or alternative formats, contact 311. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to call 311 at 612-673-3000. TTY users can call 612-673-2157 or 612-673-2626.